We got 17 entries this month, from oldies and newbies, a larger number again.Thanks to all of you for participating!

Please read through all of the entries in the submission thread and place your votes for your four favourite entries in this thread. You won't be able to see the vote breakdown until the vote closes, so spread the word for others to come and vote! We do ask that if you entered, to vote for someone else.

Ah, ok. Not sure why, but just saw the critique sheet and was thinking that was something added after the other poll discussion. Gotcha, nevermind me.

There was some discussion of getting people to write short reviews of each story, you're not imagining things! Wakarimasen used to do that - a couple of sentences for each rather than a serious critique - and it was always hugely appreciated by everyone. Nothing stopping people from doing that at all - based on past responses the vast majority of participants would love it!

- We should encourage the winner of the contest to open the Critique thread themselves, as a form of "courtesy" to everyone else. Should as "not obligatory, but it would be really nice if you did it." In time it would become "natural and expected of the winner(s)". Hehe, indirect social pressure for the win!

- Then they also post at least 2-3 critiques to get the ball rolling.

- Of course, some people may not be comfortable offering critiques, so they can just say what they liked the most in some stories. What matter is that the game starts!

- Anyone can ask for a critique as well or about specific parts of their story.

- Bonus points if the winner(s) (or anyone else) can pick a newbie story to comment. It would help by making the new people feel it's a very friendly place and there's a lot of people helping each other to improve. So they get help, later they end up helping too, and hopefully it snowballs with more people coming in the future and becoming regulars.

- The winner can and also should ask for feedback themselves! Improvement is a constant. There's nothing stopping anyone from starting the thread, but by being the most voted story, the winner(s) would probably have a lot of comments right away about what people liked about their story, at the the very least, just by opening the thread themselves. Add to that some critiques by the winner, and you can get a lot of people in at once, who would start commenting back (hopefully) and the ball keeps rolling around.

in general, i love the thought of more structure around critiques. i think this is a great list to get the ball rolling, but any ideas NEED to come from an opt-in perspective. some folks don't like their work critiqued in a public forum.

one thing to maybe think about is incentivizing critique participation. getting the critique thread going seems to have a high coefficient of friction.

p.s. anyone who ever has any opinion at all -- good, bad, bored -- about my stories? please, please, please feel free to post it anywhere on the entire internet and point me at it. i love all feedback. i've had critics giving me both good and bad feedback on my various professional works for two decades. i'm completely immune to "hurt feelings" in any way, shape or form. sorta comes with having a godzilla-sized ego.

Yes, maybe the winner should just start the thread then and people come in to ask for a critique.

I thought the winner simply because we're all happy when they are announced, we cheer and congratulate them, everyone is in a good mood. And when they open it, people won't be as inhibited when pointing out the good stuff they liked (could be X for one, Y reason for another). Then they return the comments, more people join in and talk about other stories, and the ball rolls.

Of course, it isn't just so we can all feel good and have a cookie, people can ask for feedback on any aspect of their stories. And of course, people may know by themselves what they could've done better, don't want it public, are not interested this month (but may be in the next), etc.

But maybe by creating a structure (the winner opening the thread, in this case) it would eventually become a regular thing, so in time there would always be one, whether a certain month spikes huge interest or not, and it wouldn't depend on one or two specific members to keep critique threads rolling.

Just thought the winner of the month could be this "beacon" for the reasons I mentioned earlier.